For December 16

Hi everyone, it has been a long time since my last post - because it has been a long time since the last Thursday night cookies. Between that whole Thanksgiving thing, and then the Center had Rohatsu sesshin, which ran for 9 days and spanned 2 Thursdays, this is my first baking since mid-November. Well, my first cookie baking. I have been busy with a few other things around Thanksgiving and all, but I have not blogged about them yet.

And after this, the next cookies for a Thursday night are not, at least "officially," until February - next week there is no talk/tea/cookies, and the following week we are in sesshin. In January, the Center observes a bare-bones month, with no talk/tea/cookies, so we only resume again in February. Wow. And by then, there will be lots of change.

OK, well this week, we are turning to two repeats, for reasons explained below. The recipes:

Chocolate Mint Squares, from The King Arthur Flour Baking Companion
Oatmeal-Currant Cookies, from Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food

The chocolate mint squares have long been a staple. A number of people simply love them - as in LOVE them - Andrew Bodhi-Heart being one of those people. They are pretty easy to make - the base is a variant on a brownie, with walnuts and peppermint extract. A confectioners' sugar and peppermint icing goes on top, and then a drizzle of chocolate. Not subtle, not particularly sophisticated, but the chocolate-mint combination is a definite flavor of the season!

The oatmeal-currant cookies are for Roshi (I hope she attends). Oatmeal raisin cookies are her favorite. Since she is leaving on January 1 for a one-year sabbatical, this is the last cookie event before her departure, and I wanted to make one of her favorite cookies as a nice send-off. I made this recipe back in March, but she was not around at the time. This is a recipe from Alice Waters' most recent book. It is interesting because you grind the oats, almost to a flour, rather than using them whole. It leads to a more delicate cookie. I also use a really nice dark brown sugar, which gives a very deep flavor. The only issue with them is that they are a bit delicate and fall apart easily. Hopefully these will hold together better.